Experts agree that the most important factor in a successful grief experience is support for the bereaved. But what if the grieving person gets stuck, and no amount of support seems to be enough? Professor Katherine Shear is offering a new CGT workshop series for grief counselors and other health care professionals.

Complicated grief is an under-recognized mental health problem that affects million Americans, many of them elderly. Dr. Katherine Shear just now completed the first full-scale randomized clinical trial studying complicated grief in the elderly, which found that a new treatment approach encouraging patients to re-live the loss and reflect on its meaning is twice as successful as traditional depression therapy.

Grief can be complicated. As one of the first medical experts to recognize this, Dr. M. Katherine Shear, the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry in Social Work at CUSSW, has developed an effective 16-session treatment. She is launching the program as an official Columbia University “center” on Monday, February 25.

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Columbia School of Social Work has been a leader in social work education and research since 1898. It joins rigorous academic theory with real-world practice to enhance the welfare of citizens and communities in New York City, the nation and around the world.